Shizukesa: [23] - Karin

Again, he was on the ground, but this time he had control of his body. Nearly a week later, he'd mastered the curse mark enough to move freely under its influence. Now he just needed to revoke it on command. As he stood, he noticed that the small crystal around his neck was almost half covered in black. It was still translucent, but nearer to opaque than completely see-through.

The pain was getting easier to deal with as well. A slight jolt in his bones now and then, not the constant tearing of his entire being that it had been. As he stood, one of these jolts shook him momentarily, and he stumbled for a half-second before righting himself.

Tentatively, he performed hand signs in slow, deliberate succession, and drew his breath in. The fireball that escaped him seemed larger than normal, as if it had been waiting to escape during the many weeks that he had avoided ninjutsu. Whatever the case was, his body was out of chakra, and the curse mark receded, as if it had realized that its prey had disappeared.

He was so singularly focused that he failed to notice a tall girl with deep red hair behind a nearby tree. Her back was pressed up against the tree in an attempt to blend into her surroundings, but she was more concerned with the identity of her target.

This is... him...!?

Her recognition earned her a warning hiss from a lengthy gray snake that was constricting the blood flow to her left hand.

He's weak... Capture him. Now. The snake seemed to whisper in her ear, and she shuddered involuntarily.

There was no mistaking that chakra. She'd only felt it once before, but it was ingrained in her memory. She would recognize it anywhere.

Not only that... it was warmer.

His chakra belied his friendly grin. It was dark, lonely, and it saddened her. Furthermore, under the normal layer was something... else. Something downright evil.

“See ya.”  

And her savior was gone.

This was him. The snake bit her forearm lightly in warning, as if it could sense her trepidation. It probably could. She hated snakes.

Shakily, she darted from tree to tree, tailing the ravenous Uchiha like a shadow.  

“If you want to live... you'll do something for me.” the man hissed, stroking a silver snake that was draped around his shoulder. He stood above her like some kind of twisted emperor, grinning down evilly.

Her hands were beginning to soak in the blood that was pooling on her hometown streets. Everyone from her village had been slain as if they were cattle, and through cracked lenses she stared, shaking, up at the snake-like freak that stood over her.

She couldn't do this. It felt wrong. She couldn't exchange his life for hers when he was the reason she had survived to this day. Opening her mouth to yell, to warn him, she felt a sharp, white hot pain in her forearm, and instead of an urgent warning, a scream escaped her lungs.

Sasuke halted at the shrill noise. He turned at the sound, and activated his Sharingan on his last dregs of chakra. Drawing his sword instinctively, although he still wasn't any better with it, he hopped through the thick canopy of leaves. A series of dull thuds reached his ears, and he spun to his left just in time to see a tall girl with dark red hair and a black cloak hurtle into the ground. The impact had a sickening snap associated with it, and Sasuke's eyes widened as a gray snake unfolded itself from one sleeve, spewing a deadly hiss at the crumpled girl.

His shuriken sliced the snake's head clean off, but the hiss continued for a moment before it finally twitched once and lay still.

Kneeling at the side of the injured, he heard a gasped “Run...” from the fallen girl. His head snapped around at another, deadlier sound.

The snake's corpse was covered in white flames, and from the dead shell, an even larger snake emerged. Its head was as big as Sasuke's, and its body was a similar thickness. Raising itself off the ground, it glared at the Uchiha's Sharingan with a hungry look in its eyes. It lunged at him, fangs split wide apart.

He was completely out of chakra. His Sharingan faded away, and his only defense was now his sword.

He sidestepped and swung the straight blade at the neck, but it glanced off of the silver scales, pinging pitifully. Hopping back, he baited it away from the fallen girl.

His breath was heavy, quick and sharp, and he was sore everywhere. His mind was foggy with exhaustion, and he couldn't think straight enough to formulate a strategy, so he just ran at the snake, swinging his sword wildly.

It was agile. Its tail served as a weapon, whipping at him and knocking him away in combination with its killer lunges.

Aim for the eyes.

It wasn't one of his thoughts, it just kind of... spoke to him. It was a feminine voice, too... He glanced at the girl, who was beginning to recover from her fall. As she stirred, she met his eyes and gave him a look that confirmed his suspicions. She had put that thought in his mind... somehow.

The snake was moving around too wildly for that. He offloaded three shuriken in the general direction of the eyes, but they glanced off of scales harmlessly, embedding themselves in nearby tree trunks.

His eyes widened as a sudden thought came to his mind. Abruptly coming to a halt on the ground, he reached into his weapons pouch with his free hand. The snake hesitated, and then performed another lunge, twice as fast as the first.

Perfect.

Its mouth was wide open, and Sasuke easily dispatched a kunai into the back of its throat, stopping it in its tracks. As it hissed in angry pain, he darted forward and kicked its lower jaw, forcing its mouth shut and driving the blade further into the soft pink skin. The tail, however, was not having any more of it. It swung up from the ground viciously, throwing Sasuke clear out of the way. Through the grimace of pain, he manage to grin as he finished counting in his head.

The ground rocked beneath them as four explosive tags detonated simultaneously. Jets of flesh and blood spurted from the neck of the snake, and it glowed for a moment as a blast of flame burst from between its scales. Its hiss was nearly a scream, and it unnerved Sasuke. The battered body of the snake fell to the ground with a squelching thud, and the tired Uchiha stood and hobbled towards it. He poised his sword, point down, directly above the skull of the snake.

“Wait!” the girl yelled, reaching out a hand to signal him. He raised an eyebrow at her for a moment before he noticed the white flames returning to the snake's scales. In panic, he jumped away from the burning corpse.

As the flames dissipated, the tiny body of the original snake was revealed, surrounded with pure white ashes.

“What...” Sasuke wondered aloud, baffled.

“Orochimaru cast a jutsu on that snake... in case I tried to kill it...” the red haired girl said shakily.

At the mention of the slithery sannin, Sasuke's attention turned to the girl. “You're with Orochimaru...” he stated, wary.  

“He... told me to capture you... or he would kill me like the rest of my clan...” she said with tears in her eyes, inspiring a double emotion in Sasuke. Simultaneously, he was furious with the sinister snake ninja and violently sympathetic with the tears that fell from this stranger.

He stayed silent for a moment, looking away from her as she tried to regain her composure. When she had dried her eyes, he extended a hand down to her.

“I'm sorry about your family.” he said softly, pulling her to her feet. Through surprised eyes she winced in pain. She probably had some broken ribs from her fall...

Kakashi, with his usual impeccable timing, chose this moment to appear behind Sasuke. Surveying the scarred landscape and the corpse of the snake with his exposed eye, he turned to his student and drew in his breath to ask...

“One of Orochimaru's snakes.” Sasuke supplied automatically, in response to the unspoken inquiry.

“I see... And who is this?”

With a hand on her ribs, the redheaded girl barely managed to speak before passing out.

“Karin.”